The Lost City - Adventure Log

Adventurers:
Robert Abertam - Level 2 Human Wizard
Qiro Ertoris - Level 2 Dark Elf Rogue
Talorn - Level 3 Human Barbarian
Rumors & Quests
A. The Lost City
a. Find the lost city of Lubrid in the Sea of Dunes
b. Find information about the cure to the Stygian Plague
B. Legion By Blood
a. Find Rufus Cade
b. Find Captain Ren Burke in Rell
c. Keep Miss Jane Blair Alive
d. Save Muradin Khazad from the Tower of Belthas
e. Keep Jasper Clarke Alive
f. Notify the Empire of the death of: Esmund Roseburrow, Percival Norrington, and Cedric
Pratchett; so they receive due honors.
C. Kazlows Wonderous Creation
a. Retrieve a ship hull from the Perpetual Fog
b. Retrieve the engine from Melchizedek (Has apparently vanished on
his way to Kazlows Scrapyard
c. Find a power source for the engine.
D. Perpetual Fog
a. Deep in the Perpetual Fog, are the ruins of a port city
b. The Tower of Belthas remains just inside the bottomless fog
c. A elvish woman wraith of sorts guards the fog, her corpse was found in
bed in Belthas tower.
E. The Dawn Machine
a. This wondrous creation is said to have caused the Breaking of the
World
F. The Vanishing
a. After the Breaking, many elves have mysteriously vanished
b. An elven caravan trader named Melchizedek inhabits the Wasteland and told Qiro that
the Dark Elves are rumored to have stayed
c. A purple scrap was found in ruined fragments beneath the sands which reads: Belthas,
Qiro recognizes the name as a powerful elven archmage
G. Purified By Fire
a. Baba Ur is a religious fanatic, planning to purify the wicked

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b. Baba Ur has learned of the Dawn Machine

c. The Argent Flame were smashed at the Maktub Oasis, and Baba Ur fled
d. NarZuul the half-giant was killed

Story Thus Far:

A meager expedition is put together of meager university funds, and political bargaining to secure
Legion support.

Expedition Forces:
Captain Ren Burke - Expedition Leader Defending Rell against something
Legionnaire Sgt. Jasper Clarke - Scout Headed to Rell
Legionnaire Harry Potts - Soldier Killed in fighting pits at Vaith
Esmond Roseburrow - Chief Science Advisor Burned alive at Vaith
Cedric Pratchett - Historian/Archaeologist At Vaith during the Purification
Percival Norrington - Historian/Archaeologist Burned alive at Vaith
Miss Jane Blair - Naturalist/Cartographer At Kazlows Scrapyard
Muradin Khazad - Climbing Guide/Dungeoneer Left inside The Tower of Belthas
Rufus Cade - University Student Missing
Robert Abbertan - University Scholar of Ancient Magicks
Legionnaire Qiro Ertoris - Scout
Legionnaire Talorn - Guide

Into the Wastes

An Imperial Naval ship deposits the Expedition at Whitecliff, a seized and held coastal fortress
partially ruined. They begin the two week long journey across the Bloodstone Marches, a foul moorland
of partially sunken ruins crossable only by following a broken cobbled maze-like road to the outpost of
Faar. The Expedition stays two nights at Faar to rest, and resupply from the garrison of three Legionnaires
who man the post.
The posts Captain escorts the group across the dry Sadara river basin, to the Broken Gate, a stone
gate in a ruined wall which signifies entrance to the Sea of Dust. The party travels for two weeks until
Talorn spots movement off their path. Captain Burke consults the party, and it is decided they will
investigate carefully with a scouting team.
Sgt. Clarke, Talorn, Qiro, and Robert head out. Jasper instructs them to flank around the area.
Talorn brashly strolls over the dunes into an encampment and begins talking with two men apparently
guarding it for a Merchant Prince named Smiling Jack .who lives in Vaith. He gains some useful
information, but when asked to pay in order to drink water, he taunts the men by giving them pebbles and
starts pissing at their feet. A fight breaks out which the group handily dispatches. Talorn scalps the
bodies, and then hurriedly fill the Expeditions water rations. Captain Burke orders the men to be buried
in shallow graves.

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A week later of travelling the desert, the weather turns strange. Night continues for three days
straight and an unnatural wind picks up in the air above them, while the ground remains still. Several days
later a massive dust and electrical storm hits. The party attempts to fasten together with rope and hunker
down, but they are flung into the chaotic winds and black out.
Robert, Qiro, and Talorn awake some time later, with much of their gear gone, in an unfamiliar
area as if they were flung far off, or the very dunes shifted. They decided rather than continue searching
for the lost city, they should head North-East to find the place called Vaith to get supplies.
The adventurers travel until their water runs out, but Robert spots mountains a little over a day
journey away through his Hawk familiar. They raggedly shuffle onward and make it to the gates of an
ominous town built into a ravine.
Guards gruffly welcome them to Vaith, and beckon them in to pay tribute to Smiling Jack. They
can afford the tribute and are allowed to remain in Vaith as freemen and are allowed to drink and eat. In
addition, Jack offers them payment in return for their service. He mentions additionally that he is
searching for the men who killed his waterhole guards, along with a problem with the grain fields through
the mountains being set on fire. The party decides this may be the best thing to do to gain trust and
leverage in the only civilization they know of so far.
They are invited to the fighting pits that evening, to watch recently captured, fresh meat perform.
Rumor has it that something special is prepared for the evenings fights. They attempt to find information
but fail to gain anything other than they were captured three days ago. Horrifically, they watch three
Expedition members brought out tied to wooden pedestals: Cedric Pratchett, Esmond Roseburrow, and
Percival Norrington. Then, a beaten and stripped Harry Potts is sent in to fight three separate fighters for
the lives of his friends. He wins the first, and Cedric is taken away. He loses the following two and
Esmond and Percival are burned alive while the crowd cheers and throws rocks at them. The party
watches, without intervening.
The group decides they have to remain subtle, and make to head to the grain fields to sort out the
problem. Before making the pass through the tunnel, an Agrubian man calling himself Baba Ur the
Purifier beckons them over and reveals his plot to overthrow Smiling Jack to cleanse Vaith from the
wicked. He needs the partys support to ensure victory, and says half the warlords support him already.
Baba Ur has a massive half-giant companion named NarZuul. The party accepts his offer, and he reveals
he will call a Reckoning, an emergency meeting called by the Warlords to address serious issues, to set up
an ambush and he needs the party to sneak into Smiling Jacks home and kill him when he attempts to
flee.
As the sun sets, a horn is blown, signalling the Reckoning....
Out of the Frying Pan
The adventurers peruse about Vaith as soldiers begin gathering at the fighting pits for the
meeting. Talorn goes to the pits, Qiro stakes out in front of Jacks Hold, and Abertam hides in a market

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stall. Talorn did some gambling and found out that the closest other settlement was the Maktub Oasis to
the South West.
The four warlord factions, Shatar Brotherhood, Sandreavers, Argent Flame, and the Ashtongue
Deathsworn gather and the leaders begin deliberation. It becomes heated, and Abertam sends his hawk to
get a better view but it is shot down, and revealed as a magical familiar.
Baba Ur leaps forward and kills the Sandreaver warlord, and fighting breaks out, along with
chaos. Talorn fights his way to the pits, to chase after Baba Ur. Qiro attempts to break into Jacks Hold
but is stabbed from an invisible attacker. The three meet up and break into Jacks home finding him
packing with three harlots. Qiro dispatched Jack with an arrow, and Talorn killed two harlots and spared
the third.
They carried Jacks body outside, barely alive, and presented it to the Argent Flame who had
begun to Purify Vaith. They gathered up all the freemen and butchered them in the fighting pits, and
crucified all of the fighters. The Argent Flame recruited slave children, and those who refused to join
were pushed into a building and set on fire. Baba Ur declared they would march on Maktub next.
The adventurers laid low for a little, and then made a run for it, getting showered with arrows as
they left. Abertam and Qiro both dropped, but Talorn amazingly carried both of them to a covered stable
and they fled into the night, journeying towards the Maktub Oasis.
By the third day, Qiro and Abertam had passed out under the desert heat due to lack of water.
Talorn carried them a day further before himself passing unconscious. They faded in and out of
consciousness, but had made it close enough to get picked up by a merchant and carried into town.
They awoke to Melchizedek, a brightly robed elven merchant who fed them and informed them
the new towns sheriff wanted to see them. A familiar face entered the covered deck, Jasper Clarke.
The adventurers told him about the coming force, and he told them they could flee and head to
find Lubrid, or stay and attempt to hold the town. They chose to make a stand.
Preparations began to harden the oasis, by fortifying the three entrances, and the party left to
harass the incoming Argent Flame.
The group pulled off a perfect sabotage and let loose almost all of the Argent Flames horses into
the desert and flew into the night undetected. Abertam conjured up a convincing illusion of Deathsworn
warriors on another dune, causing more chaos as the Argent Flame attempted to figure out what had
happened. Talorn set NarZuuls tent on fire before sprinting away, resulting in deafening roars of pain.
The group was in high spirits for the successful attack, and decided to plan another attack on the
Argent Flames water supply...
The Defense of the Maktub Oasis
Qiro, Talorn, and Abertam attempted to attack the water supply, though they were spotted and
fled. They correctly suspected a trap inside the camp, as the Argent Flame waited.
They returned to the Oasis to find 4 men had fled after the group didnt return on schedule. They
made final preparations in a spiked trench, and traps around the spires.
In three days, a horn signaled the arrival of the Argent Flame, who set up camp and waited a day
before the assault. Jir El told the group that he fought with the Argent Flame in the war, and that they
were warrior priests, healers, and defenders of the innocent. Until Baba Ur began to go mad with rage and
justice. He fled to the South and rumor has it that he spoke with an angel.
It was chaotic, and all but 3 of the able-bodied towns folk were killed the fighting.

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Abertam led a defense of the Dust Gate, using large fire blasts and shockwaves to beat the groups
of attackers back. He was overrun and hit unconscious as he fled to the Prison Tower.
Talorn held the Crevasse by himself for the initial assault before leaping off the spire into the
Caravan Gate to face two groups of attackers by himself.
Qiro gave bow support from the tower with Jasper, and when his companions were in trouble
below as NarZuul charged Talorn, used a rope to leap off the tower and swing onto the half-giants back,
plunging his sword into its neck and killing it.
Baba Ur fled as his warriors perished and escaped on a horse, heading South. The group barely
survived, but they saved the Oasis at the cost of many lives.
Shrouded in Fog
The group recovered and rearmed in Maktub. Talorn recovered NarZuuls axe, and began to
remember the old gods of Tyvia. Abertam translated the dwarven ruins as Orenmir, the Legacy of
Anguish. The group gained some fame among merchants as folk heroes. They decided that the rumors of
an airship were worth following and headed to Kazlows Scrapyard. Jasper went to look into Captain
Burkes status in Rell.
Kazlows Scrap lay across the Badlands, and they found Muradin Khazad and Miss Jane Blair
there, making preparations to head to Lubrid. Kazlow wore some sort of armor, and said Melchizedek
never made it to his scrapyard, and that a ship frame is needed.
They made it to the Perpetual Fog, and found beautiful tower spires jutting out of bottomless
mist. A elvish female ghostlike apparition appeared and attacked them, and they hardly fought it off. They
decided to press on and found a beautiful marble tower with witchwood floors and engravings. Inside was
a hoard of gold and jewelry, but the mirrors and windows were all smashed. Abertam almost was
smothered by an animated rug.
A suit of armor guarded the second floor, but they answered its three riddles correctly with the
answers: A mirror, and echo, and day and night, and it let them pass without harm. In the bed lay a
womans skeleton, with half a ring on her finger. A journal revealed it was Divanys, a lover of Belthas
and that she was sorrowfully waiting his return.
A floor above, was a library with an immense amount of books. At the center, a single book
remained on a pedestal with an ornate lock. Qiro picked it. On the cover it read: Hammer of the Gods
On the spine:
One ring to show our love,
One ring to bind us,
One ring to seal our love,
And forever to entwine us.

Qiro opened the book, resulting in a rumble. He attempted to remove it and the books started to
swirl around. They quickly ran up a staircase, finding an empty barren room. They found themselves in a
strange infinite stair climb. Qiro got sucked into a mirror, and Talorn followed. Abertam stayed and
continued running up for 300 levels before attempting to leave.

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Qiro and Talorn fell from the sky, and met up a week later, unsure of Abertams fate.

World History & Lore:

General
Twelve years ago, Gristol, Sarkos, Morley, and Tyvia went to war with Lubrid, and Agrubia over
trade rights, land disputes and colonial arguments regarding the Yellow Kingdom, Sangarmartha, and
Stygai the Dark Continent after several indirect proxy wars in these colonies.
Gristol was currently industrializing rapidly under a totalitarian constitutional monarchy, while
Lubrid remained an enlightenment centered civilization of learning and magic, and Agrubia was a
theocratic caliphate with massive population. This dichotomy of industry versus magic spreads distrust of
the University, the only magic college in the Isles and gives rise to the Abbey of the Everyman, a secular
religion based on strict tenants and banning magic or occult. During the war, a separate bastion of Abbey
soldiers triumphs at Whitecliff defending against magicians from Lubrid assaulting the port holdfast.
The Isles form an Imperial Alliance to strengthen unity and expedite military response. The
triumph at Whitecliff along with growing fear of magic leads to the Abbey being declared the Empires
state religion.
A team of specialists break into the City of Light and steal something called the Dawn Machines
power source, and bring it to Gristol.
The University constructs a replica of the Dawn Machine, which uses magic as a renewable
resource to replace coal and whale oil to power the city. The Abbey through deception seizes the power
crystal by ousting the University as heretical wizards. The University whispers about the Abbey
tampering with the crystal. Lubrid bargains for the crystal, offering appeasement in trade rights and a
peace treaty in order to get it back.
Peace is struck and Lubrid reinstalls the power source to the Dawn Machine, but rumor has it
something causes it to destabilize and it detonates in a massive arcane storm which ravaged the continent
creating anomalies, storms, and sterilizing much of the life and shifting the very land itself into a twisted
mess. After a month long stretch of darkness and storms that affected the entire world called the Long
Night, the cycle of day and night returned to normal.
A decade passes full of unrest and internal political strife in the Empire of the Isles. An
insurrection in Morley causes tension before quelled, but bombings continue in sabotage attempts. The
Empire rescinds into a multi leveled dark age, with minimal growth and halted colonization efforts on
other continents.
Eventually the Sea between the Isles and the continent of Athas calms enough to be sailed and,
the Expeditionary Legion is formed to begin reclaiming the continent and remap the area. A plague from
Stygai is brought back via bull rats during this decade, and is currently causing a high death toll. In the
library of the University, a book of histories reveals that Agrubia and Lubrid suffered from this plague
years ago, but found a cure.

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Loose evidence of the new location of the City of Light is found from a mad Legionnaire who
returned from the Sea of Dust. The Legionnaire drew a crude map before dying from exhaustion upon
returning to the outpost of Faar. The map roughly estimates that Lubrid sits in the middle of the Sea of
Dust, and thus a small expedition of scholars and soldiers is thrust forth into the unknown in hopes of
finding a cure to the plague.
Abbey of the Everyman:
Abbey's ideology centers on the belief that "the universe is unknowably vast and swarming with
all manner of dangerous spirits and forces, most of which are hostile to man's existence." The primary
goal of the Abbey is to stand against magic and the arcane, which they call inclusively as the Void, but
it is also tasked with civil matters, such as officiating marriages and regulating the Isles' calendar and the
Fugue Feast.
They Abbey gained political leverage during The War as Lubrid was a civilization based heavily
around the study of the arcane and occult mysteries. The Abbey raised a separate military force of heavy
infantry called the Varangian Guard. This force held Whitecliff, the last fortress held on the mainland,
from a massive siege. They were soon after declared as the Empires official religion. Much of the
Empire disdains magic users or students due to political propaganda. In some cases its practice is
outlawed, but at the very least socially hated.
They Abbey follows the Seven Strictures:
I. Wandering Gaze
"Restrict the Wandering Gaze that looks hither and yonder for some flashing thing that easily catches a
man's fancy in one moment, but brings calamity in the next. For the eyes are never tired of seeing, nor are
they quick to spot illusion. A man whose gaze is corrupted is like a warped mirror that has traded beauty
for ugliness and ugliness for beauty. Instead, fix your eyes to what is edifying and to what is pure, and
then you will be able to recognize the profane monuments of the Void."
II. Lying Tongue
"Restrict the lying tongue that is like a spark in a man's mouth. It is such a little thing, yet from one spark
an entire city may burn to the ground. The father of a lie will suffer a punishment compounded by each
person relayed it. Better to live a life of silence than unleash a stream of untruth. The echoes of lies come
back as the voice of the Void."
III. Restless Hands
"Restrict the Restless Hands, which quickly become the workmates of the Void. Unfettered by honest
labor, they rush to sordid gain, vain pursuits, and deeds of violence. Of what value are the hands that steal
and kill and destroy? Instead, put your hands to the plow, the fork, and the spade. For even the lowliest
labor that is rigorous squeezes the muscles as a sponge, rinsing impurities from the mind and body."
IV. Roving Feet
"Restrict roving feet that love to trespass. They pay no heed to the boundary stones of other men's fields.
They wander into foreign lands, only to return with their soles blackened by iniquity. Where have you
strayed that destruction now comes behind you? Would you walk across burning coals or broken glass?
Then why do you prowl into the homes of the honest, or into the dens of hidden things, for the result is
the same. You will fall into the Void! Instead, rest your feet on a firm foundation so that when the winds
of the Void shriek against you, you will stand firm and not be overthrown."

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V. Rampant Hunger
"Restrict the Rampant Hunger or the intemperate will rise up among you like a virulent swarm, devouring
everything wherever they go, even filth. For what goes into your body, poisons you, and if you eat filth
then filth is what you will vomit up. Surely the glutton will sell away birthright, family, and friends for a
morsel of meat."
VI. Wanton Flesh
"Restrict the Wanton Flesh. Truly, there is no quicker means by which a life can be upheaved and sifted
than by the depredations of uncontrolled desire. What avail is the concourse of a prostitute? The attention
of a loose companion? Nothing. And what of the fruit of such unions? Only sorrow is born, only misery is
multiplied; within these things, the Void dwells."
VII. Errant Mind
"Restrict an errant mind before it becomes fractious and divided. Can two enemies occupy the same
body? No, for the first will direct it one way, and the second another, until they stumble into a ditch and
its neck is broken. Likewise, two contrary thoughts cannot long abide in a man's mind, or he will become
weak-willed and subject to any heresy."
The Elves
The elves consist of the High Elves, an inherently magic race, the Wood Elves, a little known
about reclusive race encountered on the newly discovered continent in the West, and the Dark Elves, a
savage subterranean race who live under the Sagarmatha Mountains to the West of Lubrid.
After the Long Night, when a massive arcane storm destroyed much of the world, many of the
elves had mysteriously vanished without a trace. This remains one of the great mysteries of the world, and
so few elves are left, there has been little in the way of organized effort to find out what happened.
Scholars have so far been at a loss for what would cause this, and the world outside of the Empire has
been much too dangerous to journey into in search of answers.
The Dwarves
Dwarves are mostly secretive and distrusting of outsiders. They remained neutral during the War,
but many dwarves deeply hated the magic of Agrubia and freely enlisted in the Imperial Army and Navy.
The dwarves previously found home to the North-East of Lubrid in the mountains and tundra.
Somewhere on the coast of their domain, they operated a prison called Grimrock, housing the most
dangerous criminals in the world. Other kingdoms paid the dwarves to take prisoners, often times no
questions asked.
Halflings
The halflings were native to the isles, and have integrated slowly with settling humans. The
humans on the Isles and halflings are fiercely allied, and halflings are the second most common race of
the Empire.

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